WEBVTT - Bob Parsons ON: How to Be Present & Not Fear the Future 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:05.160 Worry belongs to tomorrow, Regret belongs to yesterday. Happiness as 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:08.000 you're in now. I learned during the war had a thing. 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.000 I learned to quantify the worst thing, and quite often 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.520 the worst thing, it's not so bad. The best selling 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:20.479 author and post the number one healthy wellness podcast. Hey everyone, 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.040 welcome back to Unpurposed, the number one health podcast in 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.280 the world. Thanks to each and every one of you 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.680 that come back every week to listen, learn and grow. 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:32.720 And I am so excited to be talking to you today. 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.879 I can't believe it. My new book Eight Rules of 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.640 Love is out and I cannot wait to share it 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.440 with you. I am so so excited for you to 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:44.680 read this book, for you to listen to this book. 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.520 I read the audiobook. If you haven't got it already, 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.040 make sure you go to eight Rules of Love dot com. 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.960 It's dedicated to anyone who's trying to find, keep, or 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.320 let go of love. So if you've got friends that 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.800 are dating, broken up, or struggling with love, make sure 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:03.360 you grab this book. And I'd love to invite you 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.000 to come and see me for my global tour Love Rules. 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.800 Go to j shedytour dot com to learn more information. 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:15.080 About tickets, VIP experiences and more. I can't wait to 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:17.679 see you this year. Now you know, my mission here 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.840 is to introduce you to a vast array of individuals, 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:26.760 people who've lived really unique lives, had incredible experiences, who 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.640 can then share with us their guidance, their insight, their 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.720 wisdom that they've gained along that path. And today's guest 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.760 is Bob Parsons, best known for being the founder of GoDaddy. 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.039 Bob sold a majority stake in twenty eleven in a 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:46.120 deal that valued the company at two point three billion dollars. Currently, 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.880 Bob is the CEO and founder of YAM Worldwide, which 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.400 is home to his entrepreneurial ventures in the fields of motorcycles, golf, 0:01:54.520 --> 0:02:00.640 real estate, finance, marketing, innovation, and philanthropy. Yam Worldwide includes 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.800 companies such as PXG and Scottsdale National Golf Club. Bob 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.400 is also a US Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, which we'll 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.400 dive into his story today, and Bob is also widely 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:16.320 recognized for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic efforts. Please welcome to 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.280 the show, Bob Parsons. Bob, it is great to have 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.080 you here. Real pleasure to be here, Jay, I kind 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.280 of tell you yeah, And I remember meeting you and 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.680 it was at your beautiful facility at PHG in Scottsdale, 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.519 and it was a really fine evening. It was myself, 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.560 you were there having dinner. I was traveling with Will 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.639 Smith at the time. Nick Jonas was there. We all 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:41.680 kind of just bumped into each other over dinner, and 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.360 I remember just how gracious you were, how kind you were, 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.840 what a beautiful interaction we all had that evening. It's 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.880 really special. Plays I remember meeting you guys, and you know, 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.840 and Will and Necker tool my absolute favorite people, and 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.680 I knew a little bit about you, and you know, 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:00.359 just to meet you as just your knees guy to 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.160 be around joy, Well, thank you. That's very kind of you. 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.320 And I was just saying to your team outside that 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.760 that was the first time I'd ever actually played golf. 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.079 So I don't play, but that was the first time 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.200 I'd ever played golf. I had one of your coaches 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.120 that was working with me for a couple of days. 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.080 I came back to LA and I started looking for 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:21.480 a coach because I got really into it that weekend. 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.919 Will got me a really nice set of clubs from 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.760 the course too, that were fitted for me and made 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.760 for me. And I couldn't find a coach as good 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.280 as the ones you had at PXT. So now I 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.480 need to come back more often to get some lessons. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.680 Well we're there, thank you. Well, Bob, I want to 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.880 dive straight in to your journey and to really dive 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.960 into your work that you're doing today. And I think 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.839 I was really blown away to hear about your time 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.760 as a marine, and I'd like to start there. Well, 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.080 you know, when I enlisted in the Marine Corps, I 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.280 did so mostly because I had two friends of mine 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.400 asked me to join them. They were we were in 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:02.480 our senior year of high school and they were going 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:05.080 to visit with the Marine Corps recruiter and asked me 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.320 if i'd go along with them, and I did. You know, 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.360 as we spent time with the Marine Corps recruiter, he 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.480 eventually had us in the palm of his hands. I 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.680 mean this was during the height of the Vietnam War 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:22.040 in nineteen sixty eight. I listed one month and walking 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:25.559 through a village at night, I was on the point 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:31.279 team and the point man he stepped over a trip wire, 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.920 missed it and I hit it, and that thing blew 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.279 and I got shrapnel both of my legs and my 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.680 left elbow, and I was meta fact out. I left 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:45.960 on a stretcher. So you know, the thoughts that I 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:49.839 took back from that is I think I learned to 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.239 think one day at a time, and I looked to 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.960 quantify the worst thing that could possibly happen. That's got 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.599 me through a number of businesses. I've built three businesses 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:06.240 now I'm working on the third, all from scratch. And 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.040 you know, when you do a startup, startup, you have 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.200 a lot of good days and a lot of bad days, 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.839 and sometimes, you know, the good days or euphoric, and 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:19.400 the bad days look like armageddon. So you know, how 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:24.039 you think really matters. And I learned during the war 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.160 how to think. I learned to quantify the worst thing, 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:30.120 and quite often the worst thing. When you sit down 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.040 and you quantify, it's not so bad. But if you 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.400 you know, if you look at the worst thing, it's 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:40.320 this big dark room full of bad things that could happen, 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.720 then it looks like far worse than it actually is, 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.120 and then it becomes debilitating. Yeah, I mean, that's such 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:51.720 a powerful reflection hearing that from you, based on the 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:55.120 experiences that you went through. Often we hear that idea, 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.240 but sitting with you here today, listening to in person, 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.800 I can feel just how real that idea is for you. 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:04.720 I love what you said about facing one day at 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.520 a time. I think a lot of our anxiety, a 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.080 lot of our pain, a lot of our stress is 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:16.440 based on what could happen in twelve months exactly, yeah, 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:20.760 or what happened twelve months ago. And what you're saying is, well, actually, 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.200 when you take one day at a time, that feels 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:28.040 manageable and solvable, even in such extreme situations. Well, and 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.520 you know, one day at a time is something you 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.400 can do something about, right, because it's there, You know, 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.159 to be worried about a year from now, there's not 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:38.800 much you can do until it's a year from now, 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:41.520 and then it becomes one day at a time. Yeah. 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:48.080 I often thought that worry belongs to tomorrow, regret belongs 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:53.919 to yesterday, happiness as here and now. That's so powerful. Wow. 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.039 And then when you came back, and you come back 0:06:56.080 --> 0:07:00.480 and you're experiencing depression, you're experiencing of course all stress, 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.560 the trauma that comes from living in that way. For 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:05.640 a month. I mean, how did your parents react to that? 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:07.800 Before we get onto how you reacted to it? I mean, 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:10.920 I mean, well, how did your parents feel? I grew 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.080 up in a in a different kind of house. I 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.200 grew up in a in a blue collar neighborhood in 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:21.520 East Baltimore, and mom and dad were both compulsive gamblers 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.680 and they weren't very good at it. Now, I wouldn't 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:27.920 trade my mom and dad for any two on the planet. 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.800 I loved them to pieces, but didn't pay a lot 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.560 of attention to me. And I wasn't actually home that much, 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:37.560 so they never noticed. They never noticed, and a lot 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:39.440 of it, which a lot of it is I just 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:44.200 kept to myself. You know, my symptoms were and as 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.280 I was home, they got worse, and they got worse, 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:49.480 and they got worse. And when I say that, I 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:55.000 mean over forty nine years, the symptoms with me was 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.560 I didn't want to go places. I didn't want to 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.640 be with groups. You know, no matter who the group was, 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.720 I never felt like I belonged because I'd be there 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.840 and I'd have this just this picture of the stuff 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.160 that we did. I mean, and it just never leaves you. 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.040 And of course nobody else is dealing with that kind 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.800 of stuff. So you're definitely are different, right, So that's, 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.560 you know, one of the things. A quick temper is 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.480 another thing. People would describe me as man one of 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:28.040 the most intense people they've ever met. Now they're crying. 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:30.480 When I got into that, it was always by myself, 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:35.040 nobody be around. But there was good things too, and 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:39.480 the good things where when I went to college. When 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:41.319 I came back, I worked as a laborer in a 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:44.000 steel mill at Bethlehem Steel and I did that for 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.480 a year, and then the University of Baltimore had a 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:51.200 special deal for veterans where my high school grades didn't matter. 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.240 Thank goodness, I didn't have to take the entrance exams right, 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.480 and I could go on the GI bill, which I did. 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:02.560 I went studied accounting, literally, I mean, as fate would 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:04.640 have it. It was the first major in the book. 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.559 What is this? They said, you go with math? I said, yeah, 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:12.320 as good as anything. You're interested in business, Yeah, you 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:16.080 should try accounting. And I did, and I wound up 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.680 by graduating with a Bachelor of Science and Accountancy magna 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.640 cum laude. Wow, congratulations, I'd have never done that without 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.439 the Marine Corps never ever ever took the CPAZ and 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.480 passed it the first time. Got a job where I 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.080 would travel. I mean, my life is full of just 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:37.960 see coincidences. You know where. I was working for Commercial 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:41.720 Credit Leasing Corp. And this is back in nineteen seventy five. 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.839 They send me to Redwood City to schedule the assets 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.920 to this leasing company they want to buy. I finish, 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:54.480 I have twelve hours until the flight. I wind up 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:58.200 on Stanford Campus at the bookstore because I'd always like 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:00.839 to like to read, and so four and I buy 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:05.720 a book on programming in the Basic language, and uh, 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.160 I read enough of that during the layover and on 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:12.560 the flight, wrote my first programs and then got good 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:16.000 at it. Bought and the company that I worked for 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.760 had a dumb terminal that happened to run the basic 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:25.840 computer language. And then I taught myself Pascal and then 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.200 C and then C plus plus and I started my 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:33.120 first business, which was parts of technology, and I wrote 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.120 all the code for that. And I when I was 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:42.679 working there, I worked forty hours stant now sixty hours 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:45.400 stets sixty hours at a time. I come to work 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:51.600 Monday morning, worked through Tuesday morning, worked through Wednesday morning, 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:56.080 and at about eight o'clock at night, I'd start to hallucinate. 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.200 After about sixty hours, I'd hear stuff to win there, 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.720 maybe see move that I know didn't and I'd go back, 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.560 go to sleep, come back, you know, after eight hours 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.560 in a shower and a little actually little workout, do 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.680 it again. And that's how that company got off the ground. 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.440 I put forty thousand dollars into that company and I 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:19.920 sold it into it for sixty four million. That was 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:23.760 my first business. Wow. Yeah, you know, most people like 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:28.480 just reintegrating into society, like just kind of surviving seems 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.000 to be a natural challenge because of the extreme events 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.400 that people go through. How did you navigate that? When 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.719 you were talking about some of the challenges you had 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.400 when you came back, like how did you even just 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:45.480 start finding your way again? Because it can be so disassociating, 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:49.440 it can be so disconnected, well, you know, using that 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:54.320 term disassociate, disassociating. There was a time where I don't 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.240 seen a psychiatrist for a good while, and she said 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.640 told me one of the things that that has helped 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.640 me get through the war and also helped me in business. 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:10.720 She says, you have a remarkable ability to disassociate and 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.520 where I developed that. I don't know. One of the 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.920 blessings that I have is I don't worry about anything 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.080 at all. I just don't worry. And that has been 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.880 one of the things that to me, just helped bring 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:29.920 out the joy of my life. You know what joy 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.440 there was. I mean, that's beautiful toy here. That's what 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:36.080 an incredible gift to have to not worry. That's very special. 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:42.600 When you started learning and teaching yourself these coding languages 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.080 and you started building this company, what was your level 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.160 of business experience at the time or technology experience at 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.719 the time, and how did you even figure out what 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:55.319 you wanted to build. I think there's so many people today. 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.120 I just I literally was just at the Tech University 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:02.040 in Monterey, mex A. Fifty percent of the people from 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:04.560 that university going to become entrepreneurs, and so it's a 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.880 really phenomenal institution. But one of the biggest questions I 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.560 saw that young people have is, Jay, how do I 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:13.600 know if I'm doing the right thing or I don't 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.440 know what I'm building or what should I focus on. 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.280 I feel like now there's so much choice that people 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.760 feel paralyzed by the amount of options they have. I 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.840 had a degree in accountancy, so I understood the record 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.160 keeping a business, right all right. I started a little 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:34.240 business which was more of a bookkeeping business than anything 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:39.199 where I'd work with these small businesses. Some were taverns, 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:43.280 one was a flower shop. One of my favorites was 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:47.720 a pest controls Best Control. The guy's name was Fat Willie. 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.960 I learned a lot from him, keep tracking, the way 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.400 he would keep track of things, and and I, you know, 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:57.000 and it got to the point whereover, you know, over 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.720 you know, a few years, I could, you know, start 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.199 doing the records of a business and I could tell 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.480 you if they'd succeed or not. And anyhow, using those 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.080 little things that I learned there, you know, That's what 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:12.600 I did when I launched my business. And then plus 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.160 I learned, you know, I learned like, for example, I 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.120 read during the Civil War, right during the Civil War 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.520 in the Union, there was General McClellan who really trained 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:27.080 and organized the Union army, but he could not move 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.360 them into battle, just couldn't do it right. And then 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.560 so so Lincoln fired him and put Grant there. And 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.880 Granting care how they were organized. The enemies over there 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.400 go there, right, that's that's that's what he did. And 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:44.880 actually the right way is a mixture of the two, right, 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.400 So I learned that from them. I learned from John D. 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:53.280 Rockefeller that the guy who knows the most about his business, 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:57.000 he kept exceptional records. They were all manual, but he 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:00.960 knew everything about his business at a time when very 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.200 few people did. The guy who knows the most the 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.880 baddest business quite often as the guy that wins, because 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.720 as you know now, it's truly his power and especially 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.960 specific impertinent knowledge. So I mean I learned from from 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:21.240 people in history, right, and then beyond that I just 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:25.720 powered through. Yeah, I love those examples. I think what 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:27.640 I love about them is I often say to people 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.240 that you can be mentored by people you've never met. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.000 When we study history, when we look at patents, when 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:38.400 we look at connections and start connecting the dots between 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.800 events that have happened before us, you can actually gone 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.640 as so much wisdom, in so much insight, even if 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.280 you never asked Rockefeller the question yourself exactly. I mean, 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.240 you know, and somebody get Julius Caesar's another one. Yeah, 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:53.200 you know what he was able to do and go 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:57.120 and how he was able to, you know, lead his 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:01.240 armies and one time he was attacked by a vastly 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:06.640 larger force and the battlements that he built was just brilliant. Right, 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.800 Nobody showed him how to do that. He figured it out. 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.800 So I mean, we have that ability as long as 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.040 you believe in yourself and you give yourself a chance. 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.280 If there's someone right now he's listening who's thinking about 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.080 starting a business, what would be the top three things 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.320 you think they should think about if they're starting If 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.400 they thinking about startying something, well, the first thing is 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:32.080 they should do something that they love, that is fun, 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:37.480 that is something that they're really interested in. And the 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.000 reason for that my father used to tell me. He 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.080 used to say, Robert, when you love something, that tells you, 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:47.840 oh it's secrets and that's beautiful. And basically, if you know, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.560 if you love what you're doing, it's going to um, well, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:56.560 we're going to work harder and that all translates to success. 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:02.360 And then let's see here, what would be the second? 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.200 You have to not be doing it for the money. 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:08.520 If if you start a business and you're doing it 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.600 just to turn a buck, I don't think you'd be successful. 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.320 You got to start it to be special. And the 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:19.720 businesses that I started and none of them even go daddy, 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:22.280 did I do it to make money? I did it 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:24.600 to make a difference. You know, when you you work 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.600 to make a difference, you know, you do things that 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:33.080 on the surface from a business uh standpoint, it doesn't 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.960 make sense. But when it comes to really doing something 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.639 special in getting your idea across and taking care of 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:44.240 your customers and so forth, that's that's what you need 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:46.320 to do, and you will never do that if you're 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:51.040 just doing it for a dollar. The third thing is 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.159 there's there's two groups of people that you have to 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:59.680 you have to energize. The first group as your employees. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.520 And your employees, you know, they need to believe in 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:07.520 what you're doing and you need to structure it so 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.680 they can believe in what you're doing that it's special. 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.840 And again, if you're doing it for money, it's still 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.560 gonna have difficult time doing that. But if you know, 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.679 if you have a higher purpose, right, people always do 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.640 want to aspire to a higher purpose, I believe. So 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.840 what happens is when you do that with them, it 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:33.159 creates enthusiasm. And what do we know about enthusiasm. It's contagious. Yeah, 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.359 and those the employees then fire up the customers, and 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.159 then the customers fire up each other. So it'll be 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:42.520 those three things. Yeah, those the great answers. I love 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.200 those three things. There's such great points. What was something 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.639 that you were passionate about with GoDaddy, Like when you 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:49.480 said that I fully agree with you that we should 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:51.840 never start business to make money. There has to be 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.080 a greater goal with it. What was that goal with 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.520 go Daddy when it started out? Like the part we 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:01.159 don't see. Well, when I started, Addie, I had. It 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:05.280 had been after I sold Parsons Technology, which was the 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.440 name of my first business, and I signed a non 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.440 compete with into it. Not that I couldn't compete with them, 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.760 I couldn't work for money, yeah, right, for a few years, 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:20.200 and they held back a few a few million dollars 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.879 and when it was up, I just wanted to be 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.639 back in action again, but I didn't know what I 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.439 wanted to do. This was back when the Internet was 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:34.800 just getting going, like ninety seven, and so I named 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:39.520 this business Joe Max's Technologies. I had like thirty six 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:43.400 million dollars. I had gotten divorced I mean, I don't 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.960 blame her the PTSD. I'm lucky she kept me around 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:51.760 that long. So I wanted to do something in the internet. 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.920 So what I did was, I thought I would hire 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.480 some pretty sharp people and we would start trying things 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.320 on the internet, and and we and when we did, 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.480 you know, if it worked, we would continue, and if 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.879 it didn't, we'd move on. And so I named the 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.480 Joe Max's Technologies after a dirt road that I drove 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:14.200 by on the way to work. I mean, it didn't matter. 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.200 I mean, we didn't do anything. So our employees would 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.600 go to Chamber of Commerce meetings and people would ask him, 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:20.800 what are you doing to go, Well, we don't know, 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:24.600 you know, he said, I've never had a business. Tell 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:30.840 me that. And then eventually, as time went on, we 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:36.280 decided to start doing websites for people. And these are 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.200 a way or early really fundamental websites. And we noticed 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:45.679 that the website's business would would generate cash, but it 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:50.359 couldn't scale because you know, it was just your efforts 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.199 there that you were you were tied to. I have 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:55.159 a rule that if you got the right business, you 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.120 can make money while you're sleeping. Your business can be 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.800 successful while you're sleeping. So we then wrote software that 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:07.720 would build a website for people they could do it theirselves. 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:12.800 We had so many requirements. And then eventually in UH 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:18.280 in ninety nine or ninety nine and two thousand, we 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:22.840 became a domain name registrar, renamed the company go Daddy, 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.800 UH just as and and UH. I did that at 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.520 first as a joke, but it stuck and uh and 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:34.520 never did we dream that we'd make our our our 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.000 bread on domain names. And then there's there's a further 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.880 story going back. Okay, I would keep track of how 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:46.000 much money I had and and and then as and 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.760 tie that to how successful the business is doing. Now 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:53.480 that were remember that were the days of cash burn, right, 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.560 And so I would started And when I first started, 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:59.200 I said, I'm not going to worry about this business 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:03.200 until I get to thirty million, and then twenty five, 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:09.560 and then twenty twenty and then eighteen fourteen, twelve, ten, 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.760 eight six. You know, we get down to six million dollars. 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.640 And this is about you never raised It was only 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.480 your own money you put into it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:23.480 It was always only my own money. I've never really 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:27.560 borrowed much from the first business none and Go Daddy 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:31.680 none and no partners in. Yeah. So I get down 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:35.159 to six million. And one of the things I learned 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:38.400 from read about General Grant he kept his own counsel. 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:42.000 I kept my own counsel. So I decided to shut 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:46.359 Go Daddy down while I still had some some money. 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.320 And the reason I had to is that dot com 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:53.880 boom was so loud that you couldn't buy advertising. I mean, 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:58.200 people were paying one hundred dollars for you know, a customer, 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:01.760 and the customer might generate two bucks. Well, you're gonna 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:04.160 burn up a lot of cash. And I don't care 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:06.840 how big your truck is, You're not gonna you know, 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:09.600 you're not gonna be able to make ways. Yeah, that's 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:12.399 what I did. So I go to Hawaii and I 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:18.000 went there to first pay my bills, pay my employees, 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:21.119 and seld the assets. Figured out how I'm going to 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:24.040 do that. And then so I'm there by myself for 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:29.240 a week and as I started thinking about I don't 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:31.479 want to shut it down. I just had this feeling 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:34.080 I just didn't want to shut it down. The epiphany 0:23:34.200 --> 0:23:37.320 for me happened with this guy is parking cars and 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:38.840 he comes up to me, and he goes, hey, no, 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:42.439 mister Parsons, this guy's a little older than me, throwing 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:45.760